Trigram for Thunder

☳ is the Zhen trigram in the I Ching, with thunder as its image of a sudden start. It belongs to Chinese divination and symbolic interpretation, not everyday weather chat.

Text symbol

Also called: Zhen · Zhen trigram · thunder trigram
Search it as: zhen4 · bagua · i ching · iching · yijing · eight trigrams
Shows up in: Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

What ☳ means

It means thunder as a jolt that starts change.

The I Ching is a Chinese classic used for divination. Its eight trigrams are three-line figures for interpreting change; here, thunder is a force that shakes attention and starts action.

The Zhou Changes, an early text in the I Ching tradition, is associated with the Western Zhou period. Later manuscripts and commentaries changed trigram readings. Pairing two trigrams makes a six-line hexagram with a more specific reading. Since the Song dynasty, later systems also linked trigrams to directions, seasons, and numbers.

It reads as specialist I Ching symbolism, not ordinary weather notation.

In a casual message, readers without I Ching context may miss the reference.